|
NAPTIP raises alarm over booming
baby sales in South East
From PETRUS OBI, Enugu
Wednesday,
March 9, 2011
From the early days when a medical doctor in Enugu was arrested
and charged to court for keeping pregnant girls and selling their
babies after delivery, the unveiling of what goes on behind the
scene in some hospitals and maternity homes has continued unabated.
The efforts of the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in
Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP) which has intensified
the war against the illicit sale of children have revealed so much
about the illicit business.
In one of the cases in court, one of the victims confessed that
a medical doctor was involved in the act of impregnating some of
the girls in his custody so that he doesn’t run out of the
commodity; while the homes are heavily guarded to ensure that the
girls do not escape from the camp.
Following the lucrative nature of the business in which a baby is
sold between N350, 000 to N450, 000 depending on the sex of the
baby, some nurses have also abandoned their employment to set up
baby factories.
In one of such cases reported in Onitsha, Anambra State, a nurse
and her husband had turned two rooms in their three-bedroom apartment
into a baby factory where pregnant girls were kept.
In the business, paid agents were also said to have been employed
to scout for pregnant girls to ensure that prospective customers
were not disappointed.
According to NAPTIP, “it’s not only in hospitals, we’ve
seen people who run the trade in their home, in the same flat where
they live with their family, then they turn one room into boarding
facilities for pregnant girls. Some are nurses, some are not; some
will pick up pregnant girls and register them in a hospital, pay
the bills and watch them until they have the babies.”
The Zonal Head of NAPTIP in Enugu, Mrs. Ijeoma Okoronkwo says the
sale of babies is an ugly trend that “we have noticed in the
South-east; and I must say that it is not just in the South-east,
you can see traces of that crime in almost every part of this country.
It’s something that has been there for a long time so the
awareness has just started and people have started seeing it as
a crime; previously it was just a way of life. And people were actually
happy that they were no longer seeing babies dumped in gutters and
street side; if babies are not dumped young girls are still getting
pregnant and you are not seeing the effect on the street, so it
seemed to be a good development.
“But ugly as we have now found it to be, babies are now traded
across the counter, indeed, it is a very ugly trend.”
She explained that human trafficking involves transportation or
transfer of human beings for exploitation; saying that “why
we see sales of babies as closely linked to human trafficking is
because these pregnant young girls are moved, transferred, harboured
and their babies taken away from them and sold for reasons you really
cannot say.
“At times it could be for illicit adoption, but it could be
for other things like rituals; so at the end of the day someone
is exploited; these young pregnant girls are sometimes exploited
and the babies, when you have to pay money to procure someone, they
are enslaved even from birth and its unacceptable.
“Now, looking at this trade in the South-east, I know we got
the first indication from Abia State, but then we couldn’t
understand it; we couldn’t figure how babies could be sold
for money, it really blew our minds. But with time, with investigations,
surveillance and careful observation of things happening around,
we saw that this is a crime that has really gained ground over time.
So you see the crime in every State of the South-east.
“NAPTIP has done quite a lot; we have tackled the menace headlong
despite threats, despite knowing you are running against criminals,
it’s never easy, but we are not deterred. We have made some
useful breakthroughs into the crime; with the cooperation of other
security agencies we have made useful arrests and we have quite
a lot of cases pending in court; we have some people who are big
time traders’ in the business who are currently battling it
out in court with NAPTIP. We have carefully investigated some of
these cases before proceeding to prosecute them in court.”
The NAPTIP zonal head noted that regrettably government has not
done enough, especially in the South-east.
“NAPTIP is empowered by law to work with other agencies, to
work with NGOs, to work with government ministries and parastatals
towards eliminating the root causes of human trafficking. Now, when
you look at the sale of babies our studies show that there is an
influx of criminals into this trade; turning these young girl’s
predicament into a lucrative venture. A young girl who is pregnant
is in an obvious trauma and these criminals have seized the opportunity
to make money because there is no guarantee of safety for the young
pregnant girl. You will agree with me that when a 15-year-old girl
comes home pregnant, the first reaction most times is to throw her
out, get angry and all that. And when you throw a 15-year-old pregnant
girl out where does she end?
There is no hiding place, no home, no facility of government and
you find her hanging around the street and before you know it the
criminals in this trade and their agents will come in and offer
them what they need most, accommodation, feeding and a place to
hide; and I do not know of any 15-year-old girl who will not jump
at such opportunity; that is our predicament.
“We find out that we don’t have homes; we’ve taken
our time to talk to the Social Welfare, to the Ministries of Women
Affairs why NAPTIP and no sane human being would want to advocate
that young girls get pregnant we talk to mothers, make our people
realize that we have gone wrong, our children need understanding,
we need education, we need to expose them and when these things
are not done and these young girls get into trouble, get pregnant,
the best thing is not to throw them out.
“So, we have looked at this and we started for two years now
talking to the Social Welfare encouraging the government to come
up with even one social home in each state, just a centre where
you can put these girls until they have their babies even while
we intensify efforts to educate mothers on the need to take care
of their daughters, on the need to expose them to sex education
quite early in life.
“People have argued that they are doing us some good, but
I must tell you that when you send agents out to scout for young
pregnant girls in trouble and you take them in without the knowledge
of the parents; take them away, help them and care for them to have
their babies and all the good things you think you have done, you
have kidnapped the girl kept her under unlawful guardianship.
“If you really want to help, when you see these girls the
first thing you should do is to consult their families, if you are
helping, let the police know that you found such a girl and make
effort to find the family, but when you hide them away, because
that’s what we see here; they are hidden away, locked up at
a place, some of them who have a re-think and decide to go home
are beaten up and forced to stay back in the homes.
“While sale of babies may not fall into human trafficking
there are other crimes around it because by the time you pick a
young girl and take her away, within the time you pick her up and
the time she delivers you must have committed several other crimes
in human trafficking,” she explained.
How
to Give Your Woman Earth-Shaking Orgasms. Click Here!
Make
N450,000 Online Monthly. Click Here
Earn
$1,000 weekly, online workers
needed worldwide. Download free e-book
Cure Premature Ejaculation Fast.
No Pills, No Herbs. 100% Natural
|
